our story on the tort claim<\/a> and sent Lyster questions about the claim and discrepancies we found in public records.<\/p>\nLyster did not make Moreno available for an interview or to provide detailed answers to those questions.<\/p>\n
After our story was published last week, Lyster called LAist to read a statement rejecting any insinuation of wrongdoing at the city.<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dWe strongly object to the characterization of the claim and media reporting about the claim,\u201d Lyster said. \u201cIt is a gross misrepresentation of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city takes all claims seriously, Lyster said, but added that claims such as Bouffard\u2019s can include unverified and false information. That\u2019s why Lyster said the city began \u201ca process of investigating and figuring out what is the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that, \u201c\u200aIn general, with a claim anyone can put forth whatever they would like, vetted, true, false, or otherwise, that is their right to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyster did not answer any follow up questions over the phone. Instead, he said LAist submitted \u201ca lot of questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aWe disagree with the premise and presupposition of those questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lyster\u2019s statement did include information about the allegations found in the claim. Here\u2019s what we\u2019ve learned about some of the key allegations in Bouffard\u2019s tort claim.<\/p>\n
Did the council know about the ambulances before they approved them?<\/p>\n
In the tort claim, Bouffard alleges that Moreno falsified a report to the City Council trying to hide the fact that the city was in possession of three ambulances before the council approved their purchase. The tort claim alleges an offer and purchase agreement was sent to the ambulance company a year before the council voted to approve the purchase.<\/p>\n
Lyster told LAist that the city issued a letter of intent to the ambulance company stating the city was interested in purchasing three ambulances.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to a communication gap, the manufacturer delivered the ambulance to us,\u201d Lyster said. \u201cWe said, we will conditionally accept these ambulances pending approval from our council.\u201d <\/p>\n
How to reach the reporter<\/p>\n
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is @yusramf.25.<\/p>\n
LAist has asked the city of Anaheim for a copy of the letter of intent. LAist asked if the council was aware of the conditional acceptance of the ambulances before they voted on it.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Lyster emailed LAist stating, \u201cWe reject the premise, presupposition and implication of the question. The situation was immaterial to the decision before the Council, which was to approve or reject the purchase of three ambulances for $700,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
LAist has reached out to all six council members and the mayor for comment and will update the story if we hear back.<\/p>\n
About the credit card spend<\/p>\n
In the tort claim, Bouffard alleges there was no oversight over credit card purchases, totaling around $800,000 of public money each month. When Bouffard raised the concerns with the city\u2019s audit team, which then wanted to audit the credit card program, she alleges Moreno told her: \u201cDo not let them in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyster told LAist that credit card spending is \u201cthoroughly overseen and checked for potential misuse, overcharge to the city or any other issue that you would have with a credit card.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThere is ample oversight of every credit card used in the city. At a minimum, three people review and sign off on every credit card statement in the city,\u201d Lyster said.<\/p>\n
But, he confirmed that the city does spend around $400,000 to $800,000 each month.<\/p>\n
LAist requested credit card monthly billing statements and spreadsheet data export for all city-issued credit cards for the past two years via a public records request. We received a 5,000 page document with credit card transactions for the past two years from the city totaling more than $17 million.<\/p>\n
LAist asked Lyster if the credit card purchases have been internally audited. He replied, \u201c\u200aNo one should have unwarranted or unfounded concerns about the way credit cards are responsibly handled at the city of Anaheim.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when asked again if the city had audited credit card purchases, Lyster responded that he \u201c\u200a(did) not agree with the premise of your question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyster said in an email on Monday that the city’s last audit on credit cards was in 2018. Reviews of the credit cards were included in the city\u2019s annual financial report, Lyster said. That review is conducted by Moreno.<\/p>\n
About the policy from 1999 for computer purchases<\/p>\n
In the tort claim, Bouffard raised concerns with a policy from 1999 used to buy computers for the city.<\/p>\n
Bouffard alleges in the tort claim that this \u201coutdated\u201d policy is being used improperly to avoid soliciting competitive bids, pay in excess for hardware, obtain equipment without council approval and abuse evergreen clauses to avoid processes.<\/p>\n
She alleges she was asked to renew a lease of around $4.5 million with Hewlett Packard for computer hardware, using the policy referred to as \u201c1999.\u201d Bouffard was concerned with the cost and a conversation with the city\u2019s IT analyst confirmed the per-staff, per-computer cost would amount to $5,000 with the lease, according to her tort claim. If the city did not renew the lease, Bouffard\u2019s claim says the cost would be $1,800 per person.<\/p>\n
Lyster said the average annual cost of a computer at the city of Anaheim is $506.<\/p>\n
Master agreements for computer purchases the city provided to LAist in response to a records request does not show the unit costs. It also doesn\u2019t include quantities for the bulk sums listed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reject any suggestion otherwise,\u201d Lyster told LAist, adding that the 1999 policy referred to in the tort claim allows the city to make replacement purchases for laptops or \u201cto make everyday purchases of computers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dEvery large technology or computer purchase acquisition contract goes before our City Council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But on Monday, Lyster said contracts for Hewlett-Packard Financial Svc, HP INC. and Pricon Inc. \u2014 the computer leases at the heart of the tort claim \u2014 \u201chave not come before the Council since they were struck and have several safeguards to ensure ongoing benefit and cost effectiveness for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep up with LAist. If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[20761,163,165,164,7182,20762],"class_list":["post-27494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-allegations","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-finances","tag-independent-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}